Explorers of East and Central Africa, and Rwanda

1Why this matters

The biggest European question about East Africa was the source of the Nile, a question that led straight into the Great Lakes region where Rwanda lies. The travellers who answered it passed through Karagwe, Buganda and Bunyoro, and later German explorers crossed Rwanda itself. This lesson follows them, and the Africans who made their journeys possible.

2Early missionary travellers

Johannes Rebmann and Johann Krapf, German missionaries working from Mombasa, were the first Europeans to see Kilimanjaro (Rebmann, 1848) and Mount Kenya (Krapf, 1849). European geographers at first refused to believe there was snow on the equator.

3The search for the source of the Nile

• Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke travelled inland from the coast along the caravan route through Tabora and reached Lake Tanganyika in 1858. On the way back, Speke went north alone and reached the great lake called Nalubaale by the Baganda. He named it Lake Victoria and claimed, correctly, that it was the Nile's main source.
• Speke and James Grant (1860–1863) travelled through Karagwe, whose king Rumanyika welcomed them, and Buganda, where they stayed at the court of Kabaka Mutesa I. In July 1862 Speke reached the point where the Nile leaves Lake Victoria, which he named Ripon Falls, near present-day Jinja.
• Samuel and Florence Baker reached Lake Albert in 1864.

4Livingstone and Stanley

• David Livingstone, a Scottish missionary, crossed the Kalahari to Lake Ngami (1849), crossed the continent from Luanda on the Atlantic to Quelimane on the Indian Ocean (1853–1856), and in November 1855 became the first European to see the great falls on the Zambezi known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya, "the smoke that thunders". He named them Victoria Falls. He reached Lake Nyasa (Malawi) in 1859 and spent his last years searching for the Nile's source, sending home reports on the East African slave trade.
• Henry Morton Stanley, a Welsh-American journalist, was sent by the New York Herald to find Livingstone and met him at Ujiji on Lake Tanganyika on 10 November 1871. On a second expedition (1874–1877) he sailed around Lake Victoria, confirming Speke's claim, and followed the Lualaba–Congo river to the Atlantic, arriving in August 1877. He then worked for King Leopold II in the Congo (1879–1884).
• Livingstone died at Chitambo, in present-day Zambia, on 1 May 1873. His African companions, led by Susi and Chuma, carried his body and papers for months to the coast, a journey without which his last discoveries would have been lost.

5The Africans behind the expeditions

Every "European" expedition was mostly African. Caravans of dozens to hundreds of porters, often Nyamwezi or Swahili people, carried the goods. Guides and interpreters chose the routes and negotiated with rulers. Sidi Mubarak Bombay, a Yao man who had once been enslaved, led caravans for Burton and Speke, Speke and Grant, Stanley and Cameron. Swahili-Arab traders such as Tippu Tip supplied men and protection in the Congo region. Without African knowledge there would have been no exploration.

6Europeans and Rwanda

• In 1876 Stanley tried to enter Rwanda from the east near Lake Ihema but was turned back. Rwanda's rulers were known for keeping strangers out.
• The Austrian Oscar Baumann made a brief visit in 1892.
• In 1894 the German Count Gustav Adolf von Götzen crossed the Akagera at Rusumo Falls, travelled right across Rwanda, met Mwami Kigeli IV Rwabugiri at his residence at Kageyo, and reached Lake Kivu. He was the first European to cross the whole country. He later became governor of German East Africa.
• In 1898 the German doctor Richard Kandt traced a headstream of the Nile to the Nyungwe Forest. In 1907 he became the first German Resident of Rwanda and set up his base at Kigali.

Practice

Solution. Burton and Speke. Speke then travelled north alone and reached Lake Victoria, which he claimed as the source of the Nile.

Solution. At Ujiji, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika, on 10 November 1871.

Solution. They led Livingstone's followers and, after he died in 1873, carried his body and journals for months to the coast. Without them his records would have been lost, which shows how much exploration depended on Africans.

Solution. He entered Rwanda at Rusumo Falls, crossed the whole country, met Mwami Kigeli IV Rwabugiri at Kageyo and reached Lake Kivu. He was the first European to cross Rwanda.